A Virtual Universe (VU) is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its residents to traverse, inhabit, and interact through the use of avatars. Many VUs are represented using 3-D graphics and landscapes, and are populated by many thousands of users, known as “residents.” Other terms for VUs include metaverses and “3D Internet.” Often, the VU resembles the real world such as in terms of physics, houses, and landscapes. Example VUs include: Second Life®, Entropia Universe®, The Sims Online™, There™, as well as massively multiplayer online games such as EverQuest®, Ultima Online™, Lineage™ or World of Warcraft®.
It should not be assumed that the utility of virtual worlds is limited to game playing, although that is certainly seen to be useful and valuable insofar as it has become a real economic reality with real dollars being exchanged. However, the usefulness of virtual worlds also includes the opportunity to run corporate conferences and seminars. It is also used to conduct virtual world classroom sessions. Governmental and instructional opportunities abound in the virtual world. Accordingly, it should be fully appreciated that the term “virtual” as applied to this technology does not in any way make it less real or less valuable than the “real” world. It is really an extension of current reality. Moreover, it is an extension that greatly facilitates human communication and interaction in a non-face-to-face fashion.
The prevalence of virtual world residence is demonstrated by the millions of accounts that have been registered with Second Life®. Virtual worlds are typically divided into areas of land (referred to as regions in Second Life® terminology). To account for the activity of Second Life® residents, many servers are employed to keep up with the growing user base. As activity on virtual items continues to grow, the client software will be required to render more and more graphical content at increasingly higher resolutions. In the current art, this graphical content is rendered in its entirety. Granular control does not exist over which avatars to render. It is noted that, as used herein, the term “resolution” refers to several avatar aspects ranging from the number of facets used to represent an avatar, to color and spatial resolution of textures mapped to the avatar body, to the granularity of the motion of avatar body parts, et cetera.
Second Life® and other on-line virtual environments present a tremendous new outlet for both structured and unstructured virtual collaboration, gaming and exploration, as well as real-life simulations in virtual spaces. These activities, along with yet to be disclosed new dimensions, in turn provide a wide open arena for creative and new marketing methods and mechanisms.